


Contagion

by blueboxesandtrafficcones



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, First Time, Pete's World, Quarantine, almost but not quite dry humping, scheming Jackie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 05:23:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13804326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blueboxesandtrafficcones/pseuds/blueboxesandtrafficcones
Summary: Trapped in quarantine together, Rose and this new new new (human) Doctor end up taking the opportunity to have their first real conversation since they were reunited; including his travels without her, giving up, and what they expect out of life going forward - together.





	Contagion

“I’m sorry.”

Rose opened her eyes at the Doctor’s quiet admission, turning to face him for the first time in three hours.  “That’s nice.”

He had the good sense to look contrite.  “I really am.  I thought I saw a Bucluetunian disintegrator sitting next to a Bunsen burner, which could cause a catastrophic reaction if it heats up too much.  I didn’t mean to knock over the viral specimen.”

“Doctor, it was _swine flu_.  I don’t know about at home, but it’s seriously dangerous and you exposed us both to it.”

“It was an accident,” he reminded her.  “One which I think you’re blowing out of proportion.”

“We’re in _quarantine_!”  She hadn’t meant to yell, but her frustration, anger, and hurt overwhelmed her; she burst into tears.

“Rose!”  The Doctor looked lost, scooting forward so they were almost touching.  He reached out, letting his hand hover just over one knee and patting the air.

It just made her cry harder, curling up around her knees as she let the months’ worth of emotions go.  After a few minutes she sensed the Doctor come around to sit at her side, tentatively wrapping his arm around her shoulder.  She immediately moved, scrambling into his lap to bury her head in his shoulder.

Taking the change as permission he wrapped his arms tightly around her, holding her to him as he pressed kisses to her hair, letting her cry it out.

Eventually she calmed but made no move to leave his lap, instead shifting her arms from around his neck to his waist.  “I got your shirt all wet,” she mumbled in apology, and he shrugged.

“It’s just a shirt, Rose.  You’re far more important.”

She spoke to his collar, not quite able to meet his eyes.  “We haven’t… talked since you got here.”

“No, we haven’t,” he agreed quietly.  “You didn’t seem ready.”

Rose let out a shuddering breath.  “I’m not, I don’t think.  And then it’s the dead of the night and you’re snoring away next to me and all I want is to talk to you, to hear your voice.  But then…”

“I understand,” the Doctor promised.

“You do?”

“Of course.  I know it must be difficult, adjusting to how much more handsome I am now.”  He grinned down at her, and she began to really laugh for the first time since Canary Wharf.

“Is that so,” she teased, and he nodded.

“And I understand.  Must be something about this universe – you’re so much more beautiful than I remember, and I didn’t think that could be possible.”

Rose stopped laughing at that, staring up at him.  “You’d never have said that before,” she murmured, and he inhaled sharply.

“Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have thought it.”

“Doctor.”

He gave her a considering look, working his jaw for long moments.  “Someone that you love.”

“What?”  The apparent non-sequitur threw Rose, and she squinted up at him.

“I figured, if I’m finishing unfinished sentences, that’s another that deserves the light of day.”

It took her a second, but her hissed breath told him when she understood.  “The chippy.”

“I know how you must have seen that conversation, and then everything- after.  But the truth was, I was afraid letting you all the way in, telling you and therefore the universe what you meant to me, would just curse us.  I didn’t think I could handle losing you.”

“But you did.”  Rose sat up straight, leaning back to see him better.  “You traveled with Martha, and Donna.  You found Jack again.”

The Doctor gave a bitter laugh.  “Just cause I survived doesn’t mean I handled it well.  Or at all.  I’d be shocked if neither of them said anything to you about how I was since I lost you.”

“Martha did seem to know who I was,” she bit her lip.

“She did?”

Rose gave him an odd look.  “Yeah, when we were talking to Davros, and Martha threated to blow up Earth – I said ‘oh, she’s good’, and she said ‘who’s that’.  I said I was Rose Tyler, and she went ‘oh my God he found you’.”

His jaw dropped as his spine stiffened.  “What do you mean, _threated to blow up Earth_?”

She stared at him, now genuinely concerned.  “Are you all right?  Did something happen to your memory?  She had some Oster-whatever Key that would activate bulkheads or something, I dunno.”

Something crossed his face, a dark look that didn’t help.  “This was after I was shot.”

“Yes.”

“Before Donna and I showed up in the TARDIS.”

“Yes.”

He shook his head slowly.  “That wasn’t me.  That was the Time Lord Doctor.”

“Is there that much of a difference between you?”

“No,” he rushed out, before stopping to think.  “Not really, not on the inside – aside from the obvious physiological inside bits, like the missing heart.  And respiratory bypass.  And most of the rest of my superior biology.”

Rose cocked an eyebrow at that.

“Anyway, memory wise, which is what I assume you’re really asking, everything’s exactly the same up until I started regenerating.  Anything after that’s separate.”  He paused before adding, “Running for my life towards you – that was me.  Well, both of us, but still – me.”

“I ran across a parallel world,” she said abruptly.  “The one artificially generated around Donna.  In it, she never met you and you died beneath the Thames.”

“Christmas.  Same day I was able to reach you, on Bad Wolf Bay.  The transmission cut off before I could get the words out.  Turned around and there she was, standing in the console room hollering like you wouldn’t believe.”

“You died, and didn’t regenerate.”  There was no accusation in Rose’s eyes, only questions, and he sighed heavily.

“I didn’t want to go on without you.  My greatest fear had been realized – and it was worse than I thought possible.  I must have given up – I would have, if Donna hadn’t been there to stop me.”

“Doctor…”

“I love you so much,” he whispered.  “I haven’t loved anyone or anything like this in – well, a very long time.  Except the TARDIS.”

“I love you too,” she promised softly.

“Yeah, but you didn’t give up.”

“Sure I did,” Rose dismissed.  “Every day.  All the time.  I’d go lock myself in the handicap bathroom and give up and cry.  Or I’d lie in bed and want to die.  But then I always remembered something very important.”

“What’s that?”

“You’re an idiot.”

He was visibly taken aback.  “Excuse me?”

“You’re an idiot,” she repeated factually.  “You just go ‘woe is me’ and move on, probably thinking you deserved it, or were being punished for being happy or something.  If I wanted to get home, I’d have to do it myself.  I learned that the hard way – twice.”

“I wouldn’t say it like that,” he sniffed.

“Doctor.”

“I just don’t understand why you think I’m worth such a sacrifice. “

“And that’s why you’re an idiot,” she smiled, bringing her hand up to cup his cheek.  “One I love, but still one.”

“What do you want from me?”  The Doctor asked suddenly.  “I’m here, you’re here – are you going to try to go back?  Will you – do you want to spend your life with me?  I don’t – I don’t know where I belong in this universe other than at your side, but if that’s not what you want-”

“I want you,” she told him firmly, shifting around so she straddled his lap.  “That’s it.  I’m open to anything – that’s something we can talk about and decide together – but the only definite is _you_.  Us.  Anything else – babies, and jobs, and marriage, that’s all take it or leave it.  I don’t want it with anyone else.  If that’s something I have, it’s only with you.”

“Really?  I’m the only requirement?”  The Doctor’s skeptical look made her bite her lip.

“Yes.  Though, uh, there are some things I feel are more important to our overall happiness than others.”

“Like what?”  She had to smile at the poor, clueless alien who didn’t seem to be picking up on the obvious.

“Like… fun ways we can spend our forever.”

“Like?” he repeated.

“Figure it out, Time Lord.”  Rose rolled her hips down against his, and after a moment his eyes went wide.

“You mean-”

“Yep.”  She popped the letter as he did, continuing to move against him as he physically responded.

“Yeah, I can get on board with that,” the Doctor nodded, staring thoughtfully into the distance.

“At least _try_ to wait until you’re home, will you?”

Jackie’s voice echoing through the quarantine chamber had the same effect as dumping a bucket of ice water on their heads; Rose scrambled off his lap to sit beside him as the Doctor drew his knees up to hide any evidence of his reaction.

“Sorry!” they called together, before glancing at each other.

Sitting in the observation booth watching as the couple laughed, Jackie turned to her husband.  “See?”

“Yeah, that’s great that they finally talked, Jacks,” Pete said patiently, “but did we have to fake a shutdown and quarantine to make it happen?”

“Oh, you’ll learn,” she told her husband knowingly, content to know that Rose would quite literally get the best of both worlds.

Well, universes.


End file.
